Washing-machine gearing



May 13 1924. 1,43,474

W. J. CONLON WASHING MACHINE GEARING Original Filed April 21, 1915 3Sheets-Sheet 1 llfi uervior" n alii" J 60775077 May 13 1924. 1,493,474

W. J. CONLON WASHING MACHINE GEARING Original Fild April 21, 19 5Sheets-Sheet 2 1370677507 mzif J C077Z077 May 13 1924.

W. J. COR-LON WASHING MACHINE GEARING Original Filed April 21. 1915 3Sheets-Sheet 5 [fluervior TVaZiar J Gar/Z 27 Patented May 13, 1924,

TE -T WASHING-MACHINE. GEARING.

Application filed April 21, 1915, Serial No. 22,760. Renewed August. 23,1920. Serial 1W0 405,487;

To all whom z'tmay concern:

Be it known that I, WALTER J. CoNLoN, a citizen of the United States,residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and Stateof Illinois, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Washing-Machine Gearing,of which the-following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description,reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a partof this secificationh My invention relates to was ing machines and isparticularly concerned with that type in which a reversing movableelement 'is employed. It is the object of my invention to provide agenerally improved structure which will be of economical manufacture, ofsimple design and of effective operation, one of the primary objectsbeing the provision of an operative structure which" will not mcur theshock which is generally felt in machines of this type in whichreversing elements a-re employed. More s'pecifically, my invention hasto do with a washing machine which employs a, rotating drum-a drum whichoperates fora few revolutions in one direction and thenfor a fewrevolutions in the other d1rect1on,'and

so on. Obviously, at the end of each ope-ration in a given directionthere Will be aico'nsiderable and detrimental shock unless some thing isprovided to compensate for it, and thus this purpose ofomy inventionwillbe appreciated. Generally, I may say that my invention has to do withthe driving of this washer shaft, and various points of novelty will bebrought out hereinafter and definitely pointed out in the appendedclaims;

In the drawings- 7 ab1ymade of sheet metal. "composed of two partshinged at 25 and attached to the casing 23 by the hinge 26, to

"place -to "place. I Figure 1 is a front elevational view' of" the partsbroken clutch between the motor'shaft and the automaticreversing-mechanism.

Figure Figure 8 is a rear elevation of the outer clutch member.

Figure 9 is a view of one ofthe friction discs. w

FlCE-l.

i I 'F igure 6 is a front view with a part broken away of the shockabsorbing friction 7 is a cross-section of the-same.

Figure .10 isa view ofacooperating fric-' tion disc, and

Figure 11 is a view member. a g

The machine comprises acombined washof the inside clutch,

ing'and wringing machine, having a wash-3 ing drum 20 and wringer rolls21 which are driven by the electric motor=22.f The drum 20 is enclosedin a suitable casing 23 having a. semi circular bottom portion and arectangular top portion, and provided with a hinged cover 24 which isprefer- This cover is i allowthe cover to be moved out laterally" I todisengage the various projecting parts of the'machine when the cover isremoved. Thenwashing drum 20 is provided with-a allowingr'eady access'totheinterior of the drum;

5 The various-parts of themachine 'aresup 5 ported-by the legs 2?whichfare bolted-to the I casing 28 and -which in connection with the acasing form a framework' ior" the' othe-r.

parts. Pivoted rollers are provided to allow themachine' tobe readilymoved from The washing drum 20,

shown in dotted lines in Figures :1 'and 2,

"substantially fills the casing 23 and when the machine isin operation,this drum 20 contains the a-rticleswhi'ch are to be washed and'thecasing 23contains the washing liqsubuidinto which thedrum is partiallymerged. Ina machine of, this character, it

is desirable that the washing-drum be re 1 'tate'd a number of timesinone direction "and then'in theopposite direction the same.

number of times .to prevent wadding the clothes into a compact massinside of w i the drum 2Q. jIsecure. this iefi'ect by the useof"automatio reversing mechanism of 29 is attached to the outer end ofshaft 28.

driving shaft and the drum so that the drum can readily be taken out ofthe casing 23 when so desired. A bevel gear This gear is driven for adefinite number of revolutions in one direction of rotation gear 29 atall times.- A spacing sleeve is rigidly attached to the shaft 30 andserves both to hold the bevel pinions place and to transmit powerintermittently to one and then the other of these pinions. This isaccomplished by meansot a bar 34 pivoted on .a. pin 35. The pin ismounted in two lugs 36 between which a groove is formed for thereception of bar 34. This bar 34 has only a limited play as the endsthereof strike against the bottom of the groove between the lugs 36. Theouter ends of the bar 34 are adapted to engage at times the pins 37 and38 mounted on the bevel gears 31 and 32, but, due to its pivotalmounting, only one end of this bar is able to engage one of these pinsat a time.

In Figure 4, the bar 34 is shown as being in contact with the. pin 37 onthebevel gear 31. As the shaft 30 is constantly driven in one directionof rotation, as inclicated by the light arrow, the sleeve 30, which isconnected to said shaft, will drive the gear 31 because of theengagement of the bar 34 to the pin ,37. The bevel pinion 32 revolvesidly in mesh with the gear 29 at this time. After the gear 29, which isattached to the drum 20, has revolved a predetermined number of times inone direction, the bar 34 is swung about its pivot to disengage the pin37 and to engage bring the pin 40 within the radius of the end I of thebar 34, pin 40 and the bar 34 will come. in contact and. by a movementin the nature of a rolling motion the end or the bar 34 will be forcedinwardly to disengage the pin 37, but will have its other end raisedtolie within the path of the pin 38 on bevel gear 32 and as the shaft 30continues to revolve the bar 34 will engage the pin 38 and drive thegear 29 in the opposite direction.

I To maintain'the lever 34 positively in each position and to preventany shifting except by action of pin 40, a mechanism is provided forgiving a snap motion from one position to the other. plished by means ofthe pins 41 which are attached to the flat spring 42 mounted on.

Sockets are prolthe side of the lug 36. vided in the bar 34 into whichthe pins 41 are forced by the spring 42 to give the This is accombar 34a snap action. The ends of the pins 41 are preferably rounded ortapered. The

pins 37 and 38 are angularly displaced relau tively to the bar 34 sothat, when the bar is snapped out of engagement with one ot the pins,the shaft 30 will turn part.

ofa revolution before the bar engages the other pin. This gives the drumconnected to the bevel gear 23 time to slow down and it may even come torest and, thus, jarring or occur in overcoming inertia. of the movingdrum, if its movement were immediately reversed, 1s obviated.

In operating the machine, it has been found that the clothes willsometimes cling to the sides of the drum 20 and will tend to rotate thedrum ahead of the driving means. This moves .the pinion ahead of thedriv ing bar 34 and when the bar overtakes --the pin 37-or 38, itengages the pin with considerable jar and shock in again starting thedrum to revolve. This action would also occur if the machine'were runidly.

The inertia of the drum is considerable;

able as well as being dangerous to the mechv anism. Special means-in theshape of a latch 1S provided to preventz-suchi action.

The latch comprises a bevel pin passing through a hole in the web of thepinion and pressed inwardly by spring 44. In action the bar .34 passesover the beveled end of the pin 43 to come into engagement .with one ofthe driving pins 37 or 38 and is then held between the driving pin andthe i latch pin until this bar 34 is snapped outof engagement with bothpins by the action of the pin 40. v

To supplement the actionof the reversing mechanism, a shockahsorber 46has been introduced in the driving connections for the washing drum.This shock absorber, which consists of a multiple disc clutch, ismounted in the hub of the gear 50. A detailed description of this clutchwill be given later in connection with Figures 6 and 11. The positivegripping action caused by the latch 43 does not entirely obviate thedifliculties imposed upon the transmission mechanism, but the shockabsorbing clutch 46 supplements this action so that a very satisfactorytransmission is secured.

The bearings for the shafts 28 and 30 are provided in the bracketcasting which is bolted to the casing 23 and the legs 27. The castingalso forms a support for the motor 22 which drives the power shaft 30..The shaft 30 is driven through the bevel gears and 51 from the mainshaft 52, which is connected to the motor shaft by means of the gearwheel 53 and a worm 54 mounted on the extension of the motor shaft.

The bevel pinion 51 is loosely mounted on the shaft 52 and is adapted tobe clutched to said shaft only when it is desired to actuate the drum 20of the washing machine. An extension 55 of the shaft 52 is connectedthrough gears to the wringer rolls 21. The

clutch for throwing the washing mechanism in and out of gear comprises aprojection 56 mounted on the pinion 51 and a pro ection 57 mounted onthe sliding sleeve 58. This The connection between the rod 60 and thelever 61 is enclosed in the housing 63 which also encloses the controlmechanism for the wringer. Since my present'i'nvention is not concernedwith this control mechanism I shall refrain from going into a detaileddescription here, but shall now proceed with the description of thefriction clutch mechanism.

The friction clutch 46 is shown in detail in Figures 6 to 11. Itconsists essentially of an outer clutch member 110, which is formedpreferably at an extension of the hub of the gear wheel '50, an innerclutch member 111, with a plurality of friction discs cooperating withthe clutch members. Alternate ones 112 of these discs are connected withthe outer clutch member. The other'discs113 are connected with the innerclutch member and rotate therewith. The flange 115 of the member 110 hasslots 116 out lengthwise at symmetrical points on its circumference.Teeth or projections 117 formed on the outer edge of members 112 areadapted to fit into these slots and to have positiveengagementtherewith. The discs 113, which alternate with the discs 112,have teeth 118 formed on their inner edge. These teeth are adapted tohave positive engagement with the groovesl120 formed on the hub of theinner clutch memher. It can thus be seen that alternate ones of thediscs are connected with one clutch member'and the others are connectedwith the otherclutch member. Pressure is applied to the discs by meansof the screws.

it serves also as a shock absorber for the re versing mechanism to givea .smooth reversal 1 of motion.

A brief description of the operation of 3 the mechanism illustrated willnow be given The drum 20 is opened by means of a gate indicated inFigure 3 and-the clothes are placed inside the drum. The casing 23 isthen partially filled with washing water.

The gate of the drum is closed and the cover 24 is closed and themachine is ready for the washing operation.

Current is-supplied to the electric motor to drive the power shaft 52.The handle 61 shown in Figure 2 is moved to a lower position to throwthe clutch mechanism for the 'washing drum into engagement with, the

power shaft. The shaft 30 transmits mothen through the other, by theoperation of the automatic reversing mechanism. After the clotheshavebeen sufficiently washed, the lever 61 is moved to the upper position,to disengage the washingblutch mechanism. The cover 24 may be raised andthe drum 2O opened to give access to the washed articles.

I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent: 1

1. A device of the class described comprising a driving shaft, a drivenshaft, a pair of facing bevel. gears loosely mounted on one of theshafts, a bevel gear meshing with said facing gears and rigidly securedto the other shaft, a sleeve on the shaft inter mediate said facinggears and rigidly secured to said shaft, a pivoted member on saidsleeve, means on said bevel gear meshing with said facing gears forcausing said member on said sleeve to engage alternately" each of saidfacing gears after a predetermined number of revolutions, and latch 105tion to the gear 29 and to the washing drum 1 20, first through one ofthe bevel pinions and mechanism for engaging said member adjacent itsend.

2. A device of the class described comprising a driving shaft, a drivenshaft, a pair of facing bevel gears loosely mounted on one of theshafts, a bevel gear meshing with said facing gears and rigidly securedto the other shaft, a sleeve on the shaft intermediate said facing gearsand rigidly secured to said shaft, a pivoted member on said sleeve,means on said bevel gear meshing with said facing gears for causing saidmember on said sleeve to engage alternately each of said facing gearsafter a predetermined number of revolutions, and latch mechanism on saidsleeve and also on said facing gears for holding said member 'ineach ofits positions.

3. In combination, a driving shaft, a pair of loose pinions on saidshaft, a driven shaft having a gear meshing With said pinions, a memberpivoted Within its length and mounted to rotate With the driving shaft,the ends of said member being adapted to clutch the pinions alternatelyto the driving shaft, and latch mechanism arranged to engage each end ofsaid member forholdingthe member in clutching engagement With thepinions.

In Witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe WALTER J. CONLON.

